Safe and Secure

My son was worried that the American voting system would let Obama down, but then he does tend to look for conspiracy theories.

I’m glad that he’s come, but whether he’ll be able sort out the mess that the US is in, only time will tell.

I’ve just read the review in the Guardian of a new film called I. O. U. S. A. This is the first paragraph.

This thoroughly admirable picture by documentary film-maker Patrick Creadon takes the driest subject in the world – America’s national debt – and makes you deeply ashamed of not having been worried about it before now. Its thesis is that America’s crack-cocaine-style debt addiction is a more serious problem than either terrorism or global warming. The budget deficit of the US has risen to an eye-watering $9tn; its trade deficit is $738.6bn; its political leaders are casual about waste, and its feckless, want-it-now citizens buy stuff on credit and have abandoned the habit of saving, drummed into them by their provident parents and grandparents.

Before anybody points it out, Britain is just as much in hock under paper-Chancellor Brown.

I tend to go along with the premise that debt is the worst of the problems, but will Obama be able to do anything about it.  He’s come in on a wave of goodwill and it will be political suicide to bring in unpopular policies to attempt to cut back the debt.

I do feel though, that in other areas we might see some progress.

Will for instance, Obama be more active in trying to sort out the problems of Africa, where there is no US economic interest. Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Somalia and several others need something more than platitudes. And a lot of their leaders need to be given comfortable cells in The Hague.

Then there is Israel and the Palestinians. But then no US President has ever upset Israel, by making them do the things they say they will.

If there was one thing, I’d like him to do then it is to end capital punishment. It is barbaric and actually non-productive and expensive too, but it’s abolishment would send a message of a more humane America to the rest of the world. It would also remove America from a club, where the major members are China, Iran and North Korea.

The Texans have ignored the International Court of Justice and even President Bush, and executed a Mexican for the rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl.

I have a very strong view on capital punishment and it can never be justified.

On a related point, over the last few months, several people have been extradited to the US, without a proper hearing in the UK Courts. Some even went to Texas.

This must stop.

The result in Iowa might be early in the US Presidential Elections, but has Hilary Clinton lost already?

I’ve always been sceptical that a woman could be the US President. 

If you look at successful woman presidents or prime ministers, they have generally been exceptional woman who were in tune with the mood of the country; Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Now, Hilary Clinton is a formidable woman, but I can’t see her going down well in a lot of places in the United States. 

I was once asked to give my impressions on a company in the Mid-West for someone who was thinking of taking it over.  Let’s say, that a woman like me, who for that job dressed in cord skirts, flat shoes and shirts, was treated very much as a resented outsider, where business was concerned.  The takeover didn’t proceed and the US company went bust.

So Hilary might go down well in New England and California, but I can’t see her taking enough of the middle of the US to win.

And that is just because she is a woman.

Good luck to Obama, as if he can impress in Iowa, he must be good. 

Over here we know nothing of him, except what has been written in serious papers.  We get to know your leaders best, when they appear personally over here.  Some make gaffs, some impress and some appear to be boring.  No prizes for who made the most gaffs.

It’s Huckabee though that I look forward to as a President.  But only as a European.

Being a Baptist preacher brings baggage that must cause problems for the US.  Unless he’s a better preacher than many of that sect I’ve met.

I’ve read his entry on Wikipedia.

I wouldn’t vote for him.

Why?

His policies on Iraq, the death penalty, abortion, creationism, homosexuality, AIDS and gun control for a start.  His Wikipedia entry has nothing on his views on global warming.

But if he gets elected, he’ll be good for Europe, as even more Americans will emigrate this way and enrich our commerce and innovation.

America is in danger of digging itself into a big hole with it’s policies, inability to face up to global warming, reliance on foreign oil and manufacturing, obesity and a massive balance of payments problem.

The latter is the most worrying.  If the US was a company, the banks would put it down immediately.

I’ve no idea who Dennis Kucinich is, but he is standing for US President in 2008.

This is his reasoning against capital punishment.

Like most Americans, I arrived at my position on the death penalty through a process that involved the application of morality and moral principles (derived from my religious and spiritual convictions), personal reflection, and a rational examination of facts and statistics. In the end, all of these considerations have led me to come down strongly on the side of opposing capital punishment.

Morally, I simply do not believe that we as human beings have the right to “play God” and take a human life — especially since our human judgments are fallible and often wrong. Indeed, since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 700 men and women on Death Row have been executed, three-fourths of those executions taking place since 1992. Since 1976, more than 100 people have been released from prison after being sentenced to death despite their innocence. That translates into one death row inmate being found innocent for every seven executed. Given this track record, I simply cannot support the death penalty, since we know that it will, inescapably, be erroneously applied and innocent people will be put to death.

Second, all the evidence suggests that the death penalty is no deterrent to crime. Indeed, in those states that do have capital punishment, the average murder rate per 100,000 people is 8, while in states that have abolished the death penalty, the murder rate is just 4.4. In other words, states that do not have capital punishment actually have lower murder rates than states that do. I confidently believe that rather than decreasing murder, capital punishment actually has a brutalizing effect on society, contributing to an increase in murder.

Third, the evidence shows that the imposition of the death penalty is both racially and economically biased. African American defendants, for example, are far more likely to receive death sentences than others who committed similar crimes. To put that into perspective, 42% of inmates on death row today are African American, even though they comprise only 13% of the U.S. population; 180 African Americans have been executed in cases involving white victims, while 12 whites have been executed in cases with black victims. Of all the people on death row today, 75% of them are non-white. Moreover, a full 98% of all defendants sentenced to death have been people who could not afford their own attorneys. I simply cannot support a policy that is so unfairly and unevenly applied.

Fourth, America is one of the last nations in the world to still practice the death penalty. In fact, for each year since 1976, two additional countries have abolished capital punishment, and the overwhelming majority of nations around the world have now put an end to it in law or practice. Even in our own country, opposition to the death penalty has doubled since 1994. Recent polls say that 64% of Americans support a moratorium on all executions. In Congress, I introduced the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003 to establish an end to capital punishment. At the same time, however, I believe that criminals who take innocent life or commit other horrific crimes should pay a severe penalty, and that we have a duty to protect our society from danger. For that reason, I favor life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as an acceptable moral alternative for the worst and most violent offenders in our society.

I was checking the BBC news page when I noticed this story from Iran on the ticker. As you know I’m solidly against the death penalty for all sorts of reasons in addition to the barbaric one, but the story led me to other stories about Iran.

For instance, did you know that Iran had a severe brain drain and that vast numbers of its young people are desperate to leave. I would be, but then I was lucky enough to have been born somewhere else.

This must be the most telling quote :-

And the cost to Iran of not stemming this brain drain – one government estimate put it at nearly $40bn a year.

I’ve also read somewhere that they are an oil-rich country with not enough refinery capacity for their own needs. They also keep the price artificially low, so this causes more economic grief.

Talk about bonkers.

This came from Amnesty International.

Behnam Zare’ has been convicted of a murder committed when he was 15 years old, and is now at risk of imminent execution, though Iran is a state party to international treaties including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which expressly prohibit the execution of child offenders. Behnam Zare’ has been detained in Adelabad prison, in the south-western city of Shiraz, since his arrest. His death sentence could be carried out at any time.

The murder reportedly took place on 21 April 2005, when Behnam Zare’ swung a knife during an argument with a man named Mehrdad, wounding him in the neck.

Mehrdad later died in hospital. Behnam Zare’ was detained on 13 November 2005; Branch 5 of Fars Criminal Court sentenced him to qesas (retribution) on charges of premeditated murder. Under Article 206 (b) of Iran’s Criminal Code, murder is classed as premeditated ”in cases where the murderer intentionally makes an action which is inherently lethal, even if [the murderer] does not intend to kill the person.” The case went on appeal before Branch 33 of the Supreme Court where the sentence was upheld, and it has now been passed to the Office for Implementation of Sentences.

Behnam Zare’ was reportedly not aware that he had been sentenced to death until a recent visit from his lawyer.

Around 11 August, his family were reportedly asked to seek a pardon from the victim’s family, who have so far reportedly refused to grant one.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

International law strictly prohibits the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18. As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the CRC, Iran has undertaken not to execute child offenders. However, since 1990, Iran has executed at least 24 child offenders. At least 71 child offenders are currently on death row in Iran.

And the Iranian government want us to believe they are civilised.
 

I hate the death penalty and I’m totally with this press release from the EU.

Execution of Johnny Ray Conner in Texas a ‘macabre milestone’, says PACE President

Ren van der Linden, President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), and as such representing a 47-nation “death-penalty-free zone” in Europe, strongly condemned todays execution of Johnny Ray Conner in Texas.

“This 400th execution since Texas resumed the death penalty in 1982, after an 18-year moratorium, is a macabre milestone in the state’s history,” Mr van der Linden said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry’s reply to the EU appeal to halt executions and consider a moratorium on the death penalty was unacceptable, he said. “The death penalty is not, as Governor Perry put it, ‘a just and appropriate punishment’. Death is not justice and never will be.”

“Despite the potential unpopularity of the measure, capital punishment must be totally removed in all countries which strive to uphold democracy, the rule of law and human rights”, he added.

Mr van der Linden finally recalled that, as a country with observer status in the Council of Europe, the United States is violating the commitment of all observers to share the Council’s basic values.

I heard yesterday, that many sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy are calling from the death penalty.  For tghemselves! The story is published on the BBC.

I think this actually enforces the need for a ban on capital punishment, as if the prisoners themselves think the death penalty is a soft option, then they should be denied it.

I was going to write a post about what happened after I was released.

It seems so pointless and trivial now after what has happened at Virginia Tech University in the US. Over thirty died and all of them had a mother.  They had fathers too, but I write as a woman.

It seems that guns are the curse of the modern age.

We have had shootings in London, but none where more than two or three people have died. Even on July 7th, 2005, when four suicide bombers hit the London transport system with a previously unknown ferocity, they only killed fifty-two. 

That was fifty-two too many, but for one man to kill over thirty with a single weapon is beyond belief.

There is only one thing to blame and that is that anybody can own a multi-shot weapon, such as an Armalite, Uzi or an AK-47. Ten years ago, I walked down a street in Houston with my husband and we went into a gun shop.  We could have come out with a lethal weapon with no checks and no training.

Ridiculous.

But what are the Democrats doing about it?  (I say Democrats because the Republicans would never offend the NRA.) 

Fuck all.  I’ll repeat it.  Fuck all.

According to the BBC, they need the Southern votes and those of the religious right, so they won’t antagonise the gun lobby.

Is America the Land of the Free? 

Add guns to Guantanamo, the death penalty, healthcare and many other things before you answer.